George Stinney jr was the typical 14-year-old living in Alcolu, South Carolina where his father worked at a local saw mill. Stinney was convicted in less than 10 minutes, during a one-day trial, by an all-white jury, of the first degree murder of two white girls: 11-year-old Betty June Binnicker and 7-year-old Mary Emma Thames.
In 1944, Alcolu was a small town with separate churches and schools for blacks and whites. Their houses were also separated by rail trucks and they rarely interacted.The bodies of Betty June Binnicker, age 11, and Mary Emma Thames, age 7, were found in a ditch on the African-American neighborhood side of Alcolu on March 23, 1944.